Fantasy Football Thrives on MLB Teams

In case you were wondering, Major League Baseball players do play fantasy football, according to an interesting article in Saturday’s edition of the New York Times. And, they take it very seriously.

The Los Angeles Angels have a 22-inch, 14-pound trophy worth $399 that they give to the winner of its fantasy football league. Relievers Darren Oliver and Dustin Moseley are the reigning champions.

The Toronto Blue Jays have a waiting list for its fantasy football league. BJ Ryan is the reigning champion for the Jays. Ryan says that he relies on a lot of text message information alerts to set his lineup each week. Ryan is a Dallas Cowboys season ticket holder, but the key to his championship last season was Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook.

Yankees’ centerfielder Johnny Damon recalls when he was with the Red Sox, that he traded LaDanian Tomlinson to his manager, Terry Francona, just so Francona could beat Curt Schilling’s team that week. “It was OK,” said Damon, “we all wanted to beat Schilling.”

Ryan recalls being chastised often by fans in cities around the league. “You killed my fantasy team.” So, I guess Ryan figures he can say the same thing now to his NFL brethren.